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LINCOLN 

IN  THE  WINTER 
OF  1860-61 


BY  WALLACE  McCAMANT 


Lincoln  in  the 
Winter  of  '60-61 


/i  address  by  Justice  Wallace 
McCamant  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Oregon  to  the  joint 
session  of  the  Twenty-ninth 
Legislature  of  Oregon  on 
February  twelfth,  nineteen 
hundred  seventeen 


J 


Lincoln  in  the  Winter  of  1860-61 

Mr.  President,  Mr.  Speaker,  Members  of  the  Legislature,  and  Fellow 
Citizens : 

I  am  grateful  for  the  compliment  you  have  paid  me  in  your 
invitation  to  be  present  on  this  occasion,  and  especially  to  you, 
Mr.  President,  for  your  highly  flattering  introduction.  With  the 
many  things  which  are  pressing  upon  you  for  attention  I  would  not 
be  justified  in  taking  the  time  necessary  to  review  even  superficially 
the  public  career  of  the  great  man  whose  birthday  we  are  celebrating. 
I  think  we  may  most  profitably  expend  the  time  at  our  disposal  by 
confining  ourselves  to  a  single  chapter  in  his  life  history,  the  chapter 
which  best  illustrates  his  qualities  of  head  and  heart  to  be  emulated 
by  the  public  men  of  our  day ;  I  refer  to  the  four  months  intervening 
between  his  election  and  his  inauguration  as  President. 

For  thirty  years  prior  to  I860  the  country  had  heard  threats  of 
secession.  Threats  oft  repeated  eventually  cease  to  alarm,  and 
thus  it  happened  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  electors  voted  for 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  1860  in  the  belief  that  the  threats  of  disunion,  which 
welled  up  from  the  South,  were  pure  bluster.  These  men  were 
speedily  disillusioned.  The  South  Carolina  legislature  was  in  session 
when  the  presidential  election  was  held.  Election  day  in  1860 
came  on  the  sixth  of  November.  On  the  fifth  of  November,  Governor 
Gist  sent  a  message  to  the  South  Carolina  legislature,  recommending 
that  in  the  event  of  Lincoln's  election,  legislation  should  be  enacted 
providing  for  the  holding  of  a  convention  to  consider  the  wisdom 
of  severing  the  relations  which  united  South  Carolina  with  the  other 
states.  A  law  to  that  effect  was  enacted  on  the  tenth  of  November. 
It  provided  for  an  election  in  the  several  electoral  districts  of  the 
state  on  the  sixth  of  December.  Such  was  the  unanimity  of  public 
sentiment  in  South  Carolina  that  no  Union  candidate  ran  for  delegate 
in  any  electoral  district.  The  convention  was  composed  unanimously 
of  secessionists.  It  convened  on  the  seventeenth  of  December  and 
adopted  the  ordinance  of  secession  on  the  twentieth. 

By  this  time  it  became  apparent  that  the  secession  movement 
was  tremendously  strong  in  the  other  cotton  states.  Mississippi 
seceded  on  the  ninth  of  January;  Florida  and  Alabama  on  the 
eleventh;  Georgia  on  the  nineteenth;  Louisiana  on  the  twentieth; 
and  Texas  followed  on  the  first  of  February.  These  events  pro 
foundly  influenced  the  trend  of  public  opinion  in  the  North. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  elected  on  a  platform  which  demanded 
the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  all  the  territories.  On  that  platform 
he  had  carried  all  of  the  Northern  states,  and  in  all  of  these  states, 


Page  Three 

366871 


except  New  Jersey,  California  and  Oregon,  Lincoln's  vote  exceeded 
the  vote  of  the  combined  opposition.  Notwithstanding  this  clear 
expression  of  the  popular  will  many  propositions  were  brought 
forward  for  a  compromise  of  the  differences  between  the  sections, 
and  all  of  these  propositions  for  compromise  involved  a  surrender  of 
the  free  soil  principle.  The  most  notable  of  them  was  that  proposed 
by  John  J.  Crittenden,  United  States  Senator  from  Kentucky.  He 
proposed  an  amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution  recognizing 
slavery  and  assuring  to  it  permanently  all  territory  south  of  latitude 
36  deg.,  30  min.  In  his  message  to  Congress  on  the  first  Monday 
of  December,  1860,  President  Buchanan  announced  that  there  was 
no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  compel  a  sovereign  state  to 
remain  in  the  Union  against  its  will. 

All  over  the  North  public  opinion  fell  into  a  panic.  Boston  was  the 
citadel  of  the  anti-slavery  movement.  A  meeting  was  called  in  this 
city  by  the  abolitionists  on  the  third  of  December,  to  commemorate 
the  first  anniversary  of  the  execution  of  John  Brown.  The  meeting 
was  stormed  by  a  mob  and  resolutions  were  passed  denouncing  the 
abolitionists.  On  the  sixteenth  of  December  a  meeting  was  called 
to  denounce  the  action  of  the  mob.  Wendell  Phillips  spoke  at  this 
meeting,  but  so  threatening  was  the  attitude  of  the  public  that  he 
required  an  escort  of  one  hundred  policemen  in  order  to  reach  his 
home  in  safety  at  the  conclusion  of  the  meeting.  A  petition  went 
forth  to  Congress  signed  by  twenty-two  thousand  citizens  of  Boston, 
praying  for  such  concessions  as  should  accommodate  the  differences 
between  the  sections.  Charles  Francis  Adams  and  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  were  swept  off  their  feet.  The  municipal  elections  held 
throughout  New  England  in  December  went  overwhelmingly  against 
the  Republican  Party. 

Similar  conditions  obtained  in  the  state  of  New  York.  By  far  the 
most  influential  Republican  paper  in  the  Union  was  the  New  York 
Tribune.  On  the  sixteenth  of  November  it  came  out  with  an  editorial 
entitled  "Erring  Sisters,  Depart  in  Peace."  In  this  editorial  Horace 
Greeley  contended  that  the  Southern  states  should  be  permitted 
peaceably  to  secede.  The  New  York  Times,  the  New  York  Courier 
and  Inquirer,  both  of  them  free  soil  papers,  substantially  concurred 
in  the  editorial  policy  of  the  Tribune.  The  Albany  Evening  Journal 
was  the  most  influential  Republican  paper  in  the  up-state  country 
and  it  took  the  same  position.  Forty  thousand  citizens  of  New  York 
City  petitioned  for  the  adoption  of  the  Crittenden  compromise  or 
some  similar  measure.  The  great  financiers  of  that  day,  such  men 
as  August  Belmont,  Hamilton  Fish  and  Moses  H.  Grinnell,  were 
strongly  in  favor  of  compromise. 

George  William  Curtis  advertised  a  meeting  to  be  held  in  Phila 
delphia  on  the  tenth  of  December  at  which  he  was  to  speak  on  "The 
Policy  of  Honesty."  The  condition  of  public  opinion  was  so  threaten- 


Page  Four 


ing  that  the  owner  of  the  hall  canceled  the  engagement  and  the 
meeting  was  perforce  abandoned.  On  the  thirteenth  of  December, 
Mr.  Henry,  the  Republican  mayor  of  Philadelphia,  presided  at  a 
great  mass  meeting  in  Independence  Square  at  which  resolutions 
were  passed  demanding  such  concessions  to  the  slave  states  as 
would  avert  civil  war. 

Similar  conditions  obtained  in  the  West.  The  Ohio  legislature 
proposed  amendments  to  the  Constitution  guaranteeing  to  slavery 
part  of  the  territories.  The  Indianapolis  Journal  was  the  leading 
Republican  paper  of  Indiana.  A  year  or  two  later  it  was  destined 
to  render  yeoman  service  in  holding  up  the  hands  of  President 
Lincoln.  It  nowr  advocated  the  policy  of  concession  or  compromise. 
The  Detroit  Free  Press  declared  editorially  that  if  an  army 
was  sent  South  to  subdue  the  seceding  states  it  would  be  met  with 
a  fire  from  the  rear  which  would  accelerate  its  movements. 

All  in  all,  the  situation  was  the  most  ominous  and  critical  which 
the  country  had  encountered  since  the  winter  of  Valley  Forge. 
Throughout  this  terrible  winter  Mr.  Lincoln's  head  remained  cool, 
his  faith  firm,  and  his  courage  unshaken.  On  the  eleventh  of 
December  he  wrote  Mr.  Kellogg,  the  Illinois  member  of  the  Com 
mittee  of  Thirty-three  on  the  crisis,  as  follows: 

"Entertain  no  proposition  for  a  compromise  in  regard  to  the 
extension  of  slavery.  The  instant  you  do  they  have  us  under  again ; 
all  our  labor  is  lost,  and  sooner  or  later  must  be  done  over.  The 
tug  has  to  come,  and  better  now  than  later." 

On  the  thirteenth  of  December  he  wrote  Elihu  B.  Washburne, 
a  member  of  Congress  from  Illinois,  as  follows: 

"Prevent  as  far  as  possible  any  of  our  friends  from  demoralizing 
themselves  and  their  cause  by  entertaining  propositions  for  com 
promise  of  any  sort  on  slavery  extension.  *  *  *  On  that  point 
hold  firm  as  a  chain  of  steel." 

On  the  fifteenth  of  December  he  wrote  John  A.  Gilmer  of  North 
Carolina  as  follows: 

"On  the  territorial  question  I  am  inflexible.  On  that  there  is 
a  difference  between  you  and  us,  and  it  is  the  only  substantial 
difference.  You  think  that  slavery  is  right  and  should  be  extended ; 
we  think  it  is  wrong  and  should  be  restricted.  For  this  cause 
neither  side  has  any  occasion  to  be  angry  with  the  other." 

On  the  twenty-second  of  December  the  New  York  Tribune 
announced  editorially  as  follows : 

"We  are  enabled  to  state  in  the  most  positive  terms  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  is  utterly  opposed  to  any  concession  or  compromise  that 
shall  yield  one  iota  of  the  position  occupied  by  the  Republican  Party 
on  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  territories,  and  that  he  stands  now 
as  he  stood  in  May  last,  when  he  accepted  the  nomination  for  the 
Presidency,  square  upon  the  Chicago  platform." 


Page  Five 


On  the  twenty-third  of  December  an  Associated  Press  dispatch 
went  out  from  Washington  as  follows: 

"The  reported  recent  declaration  of  the  President-elect,  that  he 
will  strictly  adhere  to  the  Chicago  platform,  has  confirmed  the 
wavering  Republicans  to  that  policy,  and  increased  the  intensity 
of  Southern  feeling." 

It  is  clear  that  the  position  of  the  Republicans  in  Congress  on 
the  Crittenden  compromise  was  controlled  by  the  attitude  of  the 
President-elect.  All  American  history  demonstrates  the  prestige 
and  power  of  the  President-elect  in  the  four  months  intervening 
between  his  election  and  his  inauguration.  Mr.  James  Ford  Rhodes, 
in  his  scholarly  history  of  those  times,  demonstrates  convincingly 
that  if  the  Republicans  had  accepted  the  Crittenden  compromise  in 
December  it  would  have  been  accepted  also  by  the  pro-slavery 
leaders.  It  was  defeated  by  the  refusal  of  the  Republicans  to 
recede  from  the  free  soil  principle  on  which  they  had  carried  the 
presidential  election.  Mr.  Rhodes  adds  that  few  historical  proba 
bilities  have  better  evidence  to  support  them  than  that  which  asserts 
that  the  acceptance  of  the  Crittenden  compromise  in  December 
would  have  prevented  the  secession  of  the  Southern  states  other 
than  South  Carolina,  and  would  have  averted  civil  war  in  1861. 
It  was  due  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  standing  erect  and  undaunted  in  this 
storm  of  public  opinion,  that  the  free  soil  cause  was  protected  from 
betrayal  by  an  ignoble  compromise. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  blind  to  that  which  other  men  saw.  On 
the  contrary,  he  knew  the  people  better  than  any  other  man  of  his 
time.  More  clearly  than  anyone  else  he  sensed  the  present  and 
read  the  future.  He  saw  that  the  timidity  and  irresolution  which 
alarmed  other  men  were  but  waves  on  the  surface  of  public  opinion, 
and  that  beneath  them  the  gulf  stream  of  patriotism  was  running, 
deep  and  strong.  He  closed  his  first  inaugural  with  these  prophetic 
words : 

"The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  battlefield, 
and  patriot  grave,  to  every  living  heart  and  hearthstone  all  over 
this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature." 

Lincoln  was  as  the  young  man  in  the  days  of  Elisha,  whose  eyes 
had  been  touched  that  he  might  see  the  mountain  full  of  fiery 
horses  and  chariots  of  the  Lord.  In  his  mind's  eye  Lincoln  saw 
Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan,  Thomas  and  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  ready  to  spring  to  arms  when  the  signal  gun  should  fire 
on  Sumter.  If  he  saw  Bull  Run  and  Chancellorsville  he  also  saw 
Gettysburg  and  Appomattox,  and  in  the  strength  of  that  vision  he 
was  brave  to  stand  alone. 

Thank  God  for  this  brave,  virile  son  of  the  prairies  and  for  his 
stout  heart  in  the  hour  of  trial.  The  country  had  come  to  the 


Page  Six 


parting  of  the  ways.  Concession  to  the  slave  power  had  already 
been  carried  too  far.  To  carry  it  further  would  have  been  to  break 
the  spirit  of  the  North.  Phillips  and  Garrison  had  spoken;  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe  had  written ;  John  Brown  had  died ;  Andrew,  Curtin, 
Morton  and  the  other  great  war  governors  were  taking  their  seats. 
"God  had  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  which  should  never  call  retreat, 
He  was  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before  His  Judgment  seat," 
and  if  at  a  time  like  that  the  men  of  the  North  had  faltered  they 
had  been  as  those  weighed  in  the  balances  and  found  wanting. 

Lincoln  found  the  people  divided  in  political  allegiance,  differing 
in  their  views  of  slavery  and  constitutional  interpretation,  enamored 
with  peace  at  any  price.  Yet  in  this  people  he  evoked  a  faith  which 
remained  firm  during  four  dark  years,  which  was  proof  against 
repeated  disaster  and  which  bore  fruit  in  billions  of  treasure  and 
more  than  two  and  a  half  millions  of  enlistments.  At  the  inception 
of  his  career  the  word  "abolitionist"  was  a  term  of  opprobrium  and 
those  who  preached  the  holy  gospel  of  the  freedom  of  man  lived 
in  fear  of  their  lives.  Lincoln  so  moulded  and  led  public  opinion 
that  the  country  sustained  his  emancipation  proclamation  and  it 
was  given  him  to  wipe  out  the  most  gigantic  evil  which  ever  afflicted 
the  western  world.  So  long  as  the  memory  of  those  times  shall 
endure,  the  story  of  his  brave,  manful  life  will  go  ringing  down 
the  ages  to  inspire  and  uplift,  and  to  vindicate  to  men  now  unborn 
the  free  institutions  of  the  country  he  loved  and  served. 


Page  Seven 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


OJL 


3lMay'63F 


REC'D 


15 


QEG  91970"^ 


EC 


LD  21-100m-12,'43  (8796s) 


TU    OU/71 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


